The above is a statement you’ll be hearing from now on as Facebook has subtly done away with its “become a fan” button on fan pages, switching to a more familiar “like” button. While from the surface this doesn’t seem like an earth shattering change, it’s got some deeper ramifications that the average Facebook user may not consider.
The main reason for this change to occur at all is to cater to businesses who will be spending big bucks on Facebook Ad’s. The problem with social media has always been monetizing the platform to produce billions that traditional media generates. Ad’s are the easiest and most common way to do this, and Facebook and Twitter have both recently stepped up their ad game. Facebook knows its sitting on a goldmine with their fan pages as thousands of users are being connected to their favorite brand’s and interacting with companies for anything from customer service to special prize giveaways. Facebook obviously wants a piece of the action, and to get the most users to sign up for these fan pages they have resorted to a bit of trickery.
The “Become A Fan” button was very clear that by clicking it you were giving your allegiance to whatever the page was about. But with the “like” button it’s a bit more non-commital, we are already used to “liking” our friends statuses, events, and pictures. Why not “like” Proctor & Gamble’s new laundry detergent, or “like” the fact that your local car dealer is offering 0% financing. It doesn’t carry the same weight as calling yourself a fan of something, yet the brand still gets your support as one of its fans. It becomes a win/win for the brand and facebook, while possibly confusing the consumer. Not the best way to conduct business, but sure to succeed.
With Twitter implementing its own ad system, it seems that subtly fooling users into clicking ads is becoming commonplace in social media. Twitter will now have one sponsored ad appear at the top of their search results, and they will be able to track how effective the ad is by the amount of clicks that it gets. If an ad is not getting very many clicks it will stop appearing in your search results to be replaced with something that might be more appealing to you. Facebook is going to try something similar by using your browsing history to create targeted ads. Google has become well versed in this process, next time you log into gmail look to the right sidebar and you’ll see plenty of ads for things that you had been searching for.
Apple putting interactive ads into iPhone and iPad app’s will be a whole new evolution of this and could inject a shot of energy into a struggling advertising market. This new way of doing ad business is popular for only one reason, it works. People tend to click these ads thinking theyre clicking content on the website. The ethical dilemma raised by this seems to be overlooked for now but its quite clear these social media sites are becoming a major privacy concern, hopefully it can be controlled before we’re too far down the rabbit hole.
“Not the best way to conduct business, but sure to succeed.” Maybe by some measures of success, but definitely not by others. And in the long run probably not by many.
When people get ticked at Facebook, they talk about it. They force Facebook to change or they share ways around the new nonsense or they spend less time on the site.
When huge national brands cast a large net and gather some new people while annoying and losing others, they’re playing a numbers game. They’re playing to the lowest common denominator, kicking their best and most loyal customers out of their tribe. Short-term profits but long-term death spiral.
If small business and solo entrepreneurs try that nonsense, they’ll get hosed. Small guys can’t and shouldn’t ever play a numbers game. They have to treat people the way they will treat good long-term customers, or they won’t be able to develop good long-term customers.
I absolutely agree Steve. I heard a really good speech yesterday on how these brands shouldn’t get caught up in the numbers game when it comes to followers. One loyal customer could generate more revenue for a company than 100′s who follow but arent getting the brand message or incentive to buy.
But for Facebook the desired end result is more ad dollars and for major companies to use FB site as a central hub for their business. From that aspect, I do believe this change will succeed.
Just in the short 48 hours that this has been implemented, I’m already noticing a great increase in my facebook friends liking more pages as its just so much more organic to do so now.